I bought something off a 3rd party seller with good feedback ratings on amazon japan who seems to ship overseas. I figure I'd test it out as the item was only $2 and shipping was $12 with a 3 week waiting time. At worse I lose a few bucks if the seller turns out to be rogue. HMV looks like an option for the future. Any problems with customs? I live in the UK and anything shipped from outside the EU worth over $30 is subject to tax and possibly inspection.
Jlist, xxxdvd.co.jp, squareplus.jp do seem to get stuff for you but mostly used items with a steep markup price. There's even cases where they've just shipped pirated DVDs according to the other forum I frequent.
Thanks for the feedback.